I didn't watch series 5 personally but I'm reading about it online now after someone made reference to it in another thread.

Was it as explosive as wiki makes out?! (yes wiki i know)

How did nobody get kicked off the show?!!!! Wow that must have made seriously uncomfortable viewing.

Sorry I know this is all old but I'm a bit shocked

it was the most explosive BB to date...They couldnt have a crowd for Jade's eviction because they were worried for her safety!

It was very shocking... the blatant racism caused the press to have a field day... didn't look like there would be another series after that. Jo was particularly bad in her comments but it was Jade that the press really went after

Wow

It made international news because of the whole racist bullying issue. I remember it being discussed on a bbc1 political show. I think there were protests in India too. Deffo the show with the biggest impact.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB4QYtoQp28

I don't recall it being much fun. Housemates were queuing up to walk out.

There were, I can recall seeing a news report from India where there was an effigy of Jade burning in the street.

Is was ugly......and unlike this series there weren't many redeeming moments. Danielle Lloyd in my opinion was every bit as bad as Jade, if not worse. Jade was just ill educated and thick. Danielle was like a character straight out of Mean Girls and Jo O'Mera just tagged along for the ride. Really nasty stuff.

Inside the house wasn't 'explosive', iirc it only kicked off (between the main people involved - Shilpa, Jade, Jo and Danielle) two times. Most of the controversial events weren't confrontations.

The main 'explosion' was on the outside, it was all over the news for an entire week. All over the newspapers, here and internationally. Every day they hauled the housemates back inside because the Sky News helicopter was hovering above the house, they had to cancel the crowd for Jade's eviction. They also made sure that Danielle and Jo were evicted with somebody else, and Davina literally grabbed them at the bottom of the stairs and dragged them away from the crowd.

Danielle Lloyd got off scot free despite making some of the worst comments.

Shilpa's "Your claim to fame is THIS? " to Jade was the perfect put-down, though.

I just realised it was Jo from s club! Wow, now watching footage

Oh and at one point it was so out of hand that Sky News had a helicopter flying over the house to get roving updates! It was the leading bulletins on the news.

Jade was the ringleader though and her behavior was terrible. I always remember her red, screaming face as she yelled at poor Shilpa for this and that. I always felt the whole thing was class-oriented in addition to being racist. Jade felt threatened by Shilpa's sophistication and status. Jade's mother was even more of a disaster. I consider her mother to have been the screwiest most pathetic hm ever, bumbling around acting crazy, calling Shilpa "Princess" because she couldn't pronounce her name, etc.

The series wasn't all bad though. The good tends to get overshadowed by the bad. Leo Sayers and his underpants dilemna, Donny going over the wall, some decent American housemates - all make it worth watching.

It was me who made reference to it I think. And yes it certainly was explosive, and I've no idea how no one got kicked off. They certainly would these days.

For me though it was gripping even before all that kicked off. For me it was Leo Sayer's gobsmacking pomposity and lack of self awareness that kept me gripped. As I also said before the fact that there was live feed then made it so much better. The whole series was utterly fascinating in almost it's unedited entirety, unlike many series where you feel there is barely enough good stuff in 24 hours to even fill a 45 minute highlight show.

Wasn't Gordon Brown dragged into it at one point? I'm sure he was off at some conference and asked to give reactions to the 'race row' as it was termed. It was a crazy time. As I remember Cleo Rocos was quite close to the three protagonists and was very close to making it four girls against Shilpa. And as forJackie Budden......she asked Shilpa if she lived in a shack because she was from India, I mean talk about ill-educated.

It's still my favourite series.

Dirk, Shilpa, Jermaine and H were good HMs and a worthy final four.

It had 3 walkouts Donny, Ken and Leo.

It wasn't just about racism - it was about class too.

Shilpa had loads and the 3 Witches of Elstree had f**k all.

It had some brilliantly funny bits too, like Leo Sayer leaving when he ran out of underpants and refused to wash them himself

Oh and him being manhandled by Security was a joy to behold

Danielle Lloyd getting off very lightly was the worst bit for me.

I found her much more malicious than any of the others. Her and Jack Tweed.

I agree, these two got off easy. Jo and Jade got all the vitriol. I found Danielle to be much more despicable than Jo and almost on a par with Jade.

Shilpa was very kind to Ken, who was finding it all a bit much. She used to cover him with a blanket at night and tuck him in whilst the Goody lot yelled abuse at him for snoring.
He's dead now and quite why he wanted to go in there I'll never know.

They made up a very nasty 'song' about Shilpa that wasn't shown on the highlights. Jack and Danielle were as bad as any of them.

Indian's were taking to the streets of New Delhi and burning Union Jack's and other symbols representing the UK. The then Indian PM also planned on raising the issue with Tony Blair!

*nods*

Charmless, nasty pair of bastards.

Sorry, I disagree with this, Jo was guilty of putting on an Indian accent when telling the others something that Shilpa said, and did laugh at the row between Jade and Shilpa, but Danielle Lloyd was the one who came blatantly out with racist remarks. If I recall correctly her exact words were "She can't even speak proper f*cking English. I think she should f*ck off home". And she never suffered any reprehension for it! Jade was a loud mouthed fish wife in her shouting and swearing at Shilpa, but I honestly, hand on heart do not believe she was racist in the slightest. If she could be accused of being anything "ist" she was classist! All her arguments with Shilpa were about her airs and F*cking graces, not about where she hailed from. Jade felt inferior to her in so many ways, the fact that Shilpa happened to be Indian was the reason Jade was labelled racist. And boy, did she carry the can for the others for it.